*By Madison Alworth*
The actress Yara Shahidi, star of the ABC shows "Black-ish" and "Grown-ish," is taking up a new cause to help young people work toward the United Nation's Sustainable Development Goals by 2030.
Shahidi joined "Little x Little," a public awareness campaign to rally members of Generation Z to take actions that will make a difference ー recycling, saving water, pitching in to clean up communities.
"For me and my family we've been looking for new ways to invest in our community," said Shahidi. "And of course I have my [Eighteen x 18](https://www.eighteenx18.com/) initiative as well."
That initiative, in conjunction with the social news site [NowThis] (https://nowthisnews.com), aims to get 18 year-olds registered to vote before the midterm elections in November. Shahidi, who turned 18 in February, will take over the NowThis social accounts for an online voter awareness drive.
"It's about voter education," said Shahidi. "Often times, a child is viewed as the anomaly if they are engaged in politics. So what we wanted to do with Eighteen x 18 and in particular with our partnership with NowThis, was to make news digestible. To make the topics that we're already rallying for and calling our senators about digestible in a way that it translates to policy change."
Before the midterms elections, Shahidi will start her freshman year at Harvard.
"I'm really excited for the absurd small classes I get to take," she said.
For full interview, [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/yara-shahidis-new-leading-role).
Jared C. Bass, senior director for Higher Education at the Center for American Progress, joins Cheddar News to discuss how schools are navigating the Omicron variant.
Sarah Kate Ellis, president and CEO of the advocacy group GLAAD, joined Cheddar to discuss the organization's Accelerating Acceptance report that examines how welcoming the general public is toward members of the LGBTQ+ community. Ellis noted that while visibility and representation is up in media, video games, and on social media, it has conversely opened the door for increased targeted harassment on the street, particularly for transgender and gender non-conforming people. "I go to the school board meetings, I hear the homophobia and the transphobia in-person, in real-time, and so, we're seeing that more and more at the local level across the country," Ellis said. "And we're going to see that play out in the midterm elections, especially the local elections."
Steve Patton, EY Americas Mobility Sector Leader, joins Cheddar News to discuss what can be done to speed up the adoption of EVs, and how infrastructure can be scaled up to support this transition.
New York Attorney General Letitia James is ramping up a civil investigation into The Trump Organization. The AG's office has subpoenaed Ivanka Trump and Donald Trump Jr. They have refused to comply with the subpoenas. Bradley Moss, national security attorney, joins Cheddar News to discuss the next steps in this investigation.
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis has officially reduced the 110-year prison sentence of truck driver Rogel Aguilera-Mederos to 10 years, calling the initial lengthy sentence “unjust.” Dan Gilleon, constitutional attorney at Gilleon Law Firm APC, joined Cheddar to discuss more.
LG announced its latest cooking appliances including its ThinQ Recipe service. The app allows people to choose from up to 10,000 recipes and have the ingredients delivered to their doorstep. LG Electronics executive Brandt Varner joins Cheddar News to talk about the products.
Former Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams was sworn in as the newest Mayor of New York City. Adams is now expected to work on a number of issues such as crime and coronavirus. Erin Durkin,, reporter at PoliticoNY, joins Cheddar News to discuss more.
The six-month trial of Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes has come to an end with the former tech startup star found guilty of four out of 11 counts of fraud. Michael S. Weinstein, Esq, chair of the white collar criminal defense practice at Cole Schotz, and former Department of Justice trial attorney, joined Cheddar News Wrap to discuss what happens next for the former mogul. "Do I think it's going to be more than five or seven years? Probably yes. I think that's probably a fair range at this point," he said about her potential prison sentence.
We are just one day away from what has been called the most influential tech event in the world. CES 2022 will officially kick off on Wednesday in Las Vegas, but the annual tech summit is being impacted by COVID-19, like so many other recent events. The Consumer Technology Association originally planned for a hybrid event to take place from January 5-8, with some in-person events and some virtual; however, a few big-name companies announced they will not be attending in-person, so the CTA decided to shorten the event by one day, with it now ending on Friday. Consumer electronics senior analyst Will Greenwald joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
